.for.the.grandmas.

This post is mainly for the grandmas, and the honorary grandmas, aunties (Patty, Kenzie, Trudy, etc, you know who you are). They are all constantly requesting pictures of Nina, so here's one of two days ago, after a carrot-chewing project, to hopefully brighten your day.

.stuffed.animals.aint.got.nothing.on.me.

I am sure people educated in child psychology have a Latin or Greek one-word description, or a clever acronym for what I am about describe, but since I don't know that word, I am going to have to use more than just one word to describe some of the favorite "toys" Nina enjoys on a daily basis.

name: the bottle
description: an empty vöslauer water bottle with an unusually shaped bottle cap
features: the jagged bottle cap provides just what a teething baby needs




name: the cable
description: a coaxial cable not needed any more
features: perfect for practicing two-dimensional to three-dimensional transformation at any time, also good to chew on






name: the boxes
description: a box with a single pill of tums in it and a box with some mints in it
features: these are the best items to create noise with - they rattle, also when banged against things (especially hardwood floors or tiles) they make a much louder noise


name: the clamp
description: a fairly cheap clamp for holding things together after gluing them together
features: it provides a sense of seriousness to everyday playtime and ample preparation to any little girl who wants to be able to hang a picture or change a light bulb by herself as an adult


name: the cups
description: a paper cup from haagen-dazs and an empty yogurt cup
features: you can chew on it and when putting it into your mouth it can be held by your lips, so you have a free hand to pick something else up, it also amplifies your voice when screaming into it


name: the roll
description: a big roll of clear packing tape
features: thanks to it's unique shape this item provides an endless source of amusement, because you can talk straight through it, but you can also chew on it





name: the coasters
description: half a dozen of coasters with van Gogh paintings on them, from the Louvre in Paris (thanks Garth and Gabi)
features: besides being a priceless educational resource, it is also something to (once again) chew on









name: the tins
description: an empty starbucks tin of chewing gum and an empty tin of candies from London (thanks Imre)
features: these metal items will help any baby make as much noise as they can by banging - very annoying items to own indeed

.last.week-end.in.pics.

Here are a few pictures of last week-end, when we went to Tatabanya. During our visit, our friends, Matt and Melinda took us to the nearby town of Tata. Check it out:

Statue of John the Baptist

Cool castle-type thingie from across the lake

Nina in childcare, displaying her tooth-collection :)

.a.favorite.

Tonight Arpi asked me to make one of his favorite little "meals", and once again, it turned out great. So here is the recipe to a family favorite, which is extremely easy to make, and a really wonderful, versatile little side-dish:

Baked Herb Feta Cheese
300 g feta
1 Tbs fresh chopped rosemary
1Tbs fresh chopped oregano
1Tbs chopped fresh thyme
2 Tbs olive oil
freshly ground black pepper

• Preheat oven to 180 C or 350 F
• Place feta on a 30 cm piece of tin foil.
• Mix together the freshly chopped herbs and press on to the sides of the feta.
• Drizzle with the oil and season to taste with the cracked black pepper.
• Gently fold the sides and ends of the foil over to make a parcel.
• Place on a baking tray and bake for 10-15 mins until the feta is soft.
• Drain any excess liquid before serving hot of cold, chopped in salads, with bread, or as part of a cheese platter.

Enjoy!

.we.are.going.

It is now official! We bought our tickets, we are going to be in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina between April 3rd and 8th! We are soooo excited! We look forward to visiting with our friends there, as well as walking around town a lot, praying, seeking direction for our ministry there in the future, meeting as many missionaries there as possible, and eating čevapi and tufahije!

Here are a couple pictures, (the third one was taken by our dear friend MacKenzie Rollins) to give you a flavor of the city...

The Academy of Arts

One of the bridges over the Miljacka river

Men praying at Gazi Husrev Beg's Mosque

"Sebilj" - in the heart of old town

.valentine.wishes.

I asked my Andi what she wanted for Valentine's Day. She gave me a few options:

1. Two hours of uninterrupted time to read and pray.
2. An afternoon at her favorite turkáló (a thrift shop) in Székesfehérvár.

Romance changes after having a baby, I guess :)

.still.the.pres.

Well, as of last night, Serbia has a new-old president! Thank you to all who prayed, president Boris Tadic will remain president. Praise the Lord! As you can see, the margin he won by is quite narrow, but it is still a very important victory.

.grbavica.

In my previous post I mentioned that not much interesting has been going on.

Well, I did forget to mention one thing. We recently watched a film that deeply touched us, and that we warmly recommend to everyone. It is called Grbavica (the name of a Sarajevo suburb), and was directed by Jasmila Zbanic, a young director whose name I am sure we will hear more and more in the future, as she has already won numerous awards with this film.

The film itself is about life in post-war Sarajevo, Bosnia (the place in which we are praying to be able to serve the Lord in the future). It paints a very good, and realistic picture of life there these days. Do not watch it if you want to relax and something to laugh at. However, DO watch it if you want your life to be touched by a beautifully made, and wonderfully acted movie that tells the story of a people who have suffered so much.

The official website will tell you a bit more about it ...

.the.cable.girl.and.other.stuff.

It's been a while since we last posted, we are aware of that. The reasons are multiple, of course, but they mostly have to do with Arpi being very busy preparing for the next semester here, at the Bible College, and me being busy with Nina, proofreading, and some new responsibilities. I have been proofreading some book translations and finalizing a book I translated ("Under His Influence" by Lloyd Pulley) for publishing, as well as working on organizing a board of translators, proofreaders and cover designers within the Calvary movement in Hungary. I was asked to do this, so we can work on translating and publishing much needed Christian books for the Hungarian believers, and do so in quality. It's been fun, but you can imagine how this has been filling up the little time slots I have left while Nina is napping.
All this to say, there hasn't been too much interesting stuff to report, but to avoid this post being completely boring, here are a few pics of Nina which were all taken in the recent days...

Sporting the new hat daddy picked out at H&M, on a BIG sale. (Mommy was very happy!)


"Stuffed animals ain't got nothin' on me" declared Nina after discovering Daddy's computer cable. To minimize danger and damage, Arpi quickly found a cable he doesn't need anymore, and it is the new favourite. Here you see "the cable girl" with the toy of the month.



Computer savvy at 7 months!

We hope to be back soon, with some interesting stuff to report. We are going to Serbia tomorrow afternoon, just for the week-end (a day only at each grandparents' house), as the second round of presidential elections will be held on Sunday. Because Arpi and I are both still citizens, we want to vote. For those interested, please pray that the hard-liner nationalist (potentially war-mongering) guy DOES NOT win, but that the democratically minded one (Mr. Boris Tadic) gets elected. That country has seen way too much war in the last decade and a half, and we are praying for continued peace and stability.
If interested, you can check out the latest news in English, straight from Belgrade, here.

.incisors.

Nina has two maxillary central incisors and one maxillary lateral incisor by now, so besides masticated toys our furniture is in grave danger as well :)